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Sunday, March 24, 2024

I was struck by this meme: "If Israelis stop fighting there will be peace. If Palestinians stop fighting there will be no more Palestinians." The first line is certainly true. This latest war has been so devastating that it's hard to imagine any fight left -- at least of the sort that would strike out at Israelis beyond their wall. The other obvious point is that there's no risk in trying. If Hamas does attack again, Israel can always strike back, and that reaction will be better understood than the systematic, genocidal war Israel is waging.

The second is less obvious, depending on what you mean by "stop fighting." Hamas has never had the capability of fighting Israel like Israel fights Gaza. Hamas has no air force, no navy, no submarines, no tanks, no heavy artillery, no anti-aircraft or anti-missile defenses, no drones. Their rockets are small and unguided, and have never produced more than accidental damage. Aside from the Oct. 7 jailbreak, the only way an Israeli gets hurt is by entering Gaza, and even then the ratio of Palestinian-to-Israeli casualties is 50-to-1 or more. That's not much of a fight.

However, the second line could be rewritten in terms that both sides will agree with, if not agree on: "Palestinians will [only] stop fighting when there are no more Palestinians." An army may sensibly surrender to a more imposing power, but this will only happen if one has hope of surviving and eventually recovering from surrender. Germany and Japan surrendered to the US to end WWII, but only because they believed that they would be given a chance to return to running their own lives. (See John Dower's Embracing Defeat for more on how Japan dealt with this. Japan is a better example than Germany, because its government was still intact when it surrendered, whereas Germany's was in tatters after Hitler's suicide.) A number of American Indian tribes surrendered with similar hopes, even though the US had given them little reason for such hope.

But Israel's current demands for ceasefire terms, following the genocidal threats of Israel's leaders, and the genocidal methodology they've practiced in this war, offer little or no hope to any Palestinian that surrender is anything but suicide. Israelis demand absolute servility, but know that they'll never get everyone to submit, that there will always be resistance of some sort, and as such their security will always be at risk. This presents them with an existential dilemma, to which there are only three solutions: equal rights, separation, or annihilation.

They have long refused to consider equal rights. (Lots of reasons we needn't consider here, like racism and demography.) They've considered separation, at least within certain bounds, but it's naturally a formula for war, so they've insisted on being the dominant power, both by building up a huge military advantage and by preventing Palestinians from ever developing their own popular leadership. But the solution they've always craved was annihilation. The problem there has been finding a time when they could get away with it. Oct. 7 was the excuse they were waiting for, dramatic enough that few of their allies grasped immediately how they had goaded Hamas into action.

Even so, Israel has always had a numbers problem. America was able to reduce its native population to levels where they became politically and economically irrelevant, after which annihilation no longer mattered, and some reconciliation was possible. But for Israel, there were always too many Palestinians, too close by, too economically developed and culturally sophisticated. For just these reasons, colonizers eventually gave up on Algeria and South Africa, but only after extraordinary brutality. Israel is the last to believe they're strong enough to beat down any and all resistance. And that's really because they have few if any scruples against killing every last Palestinian.

And don't for a moment think that Palestinians don't understand this. They've lived through it for decades, and while often beaten down, often severely, they've survived to resist again. They'll survive this, too, and will continue to resist, as peacefully as Israel will allow, or as violently as they can muster.

Looking further down my twitter feed:

From Rami Jarrah: Picture of an adult Palestinian male seated on a couch, surrounded 14 children (a couple into their teens). Text: "Nobody in this photo is alive. Israel's right to self defence."

From Kayla Bennett: Chart image. Text: "One of the most horrifying graphics ever." I looked for an article including the chart, and came up with:

• Ron Milo/Lior Greenspoon/Eyal Krieger: [2023-02-27] The weight of responsibility: Biomass of livestock dwarfs that of wild mammals.

• Nick Routley: [2023-04-28] Visualizing the biomass of all the world's mammals: Different graphs, but essentially the same data.

From Ryan Heuser: A link to the website for The New York War Crimes, reporting on propaganda published by The New York Times (motto: "All the Consent That's Fit to Manufacture"). I haven't figured out yet where the illustrations come from.

From Yousef Munayer retweeted Heuser, adding: "A new poll found that even though some 30,000 more Palestinians have been killed than Israelis since October, half of Americans didn't know which side has lost more lives. This has a lot to do with it."

From Etan Nechin retweeted Chris Olley: "[Pennsylvania]'s richest person Jeff Yass is buying Truth Social for $3 Billion so Trump can pay off his $450 Million judgment in return for Trump doing a 180 on his Tiktok and China stance to preserve Yass's $30 Billion-with-a-B stake in Tiktok. We call this oligarchy' when it's elsewhere." Nechin adds: "Notably, Jeff Yass was the main financier of Kohelet Forum, the shadowy organization behind Israel's attempted judicial coup that was championed by the settler far right. These oligarchs care little for democracy, only market interests." The Wikipedia page for Yass is here, which documents all this and more.

From Daniel Denvir: "Truth Social has roughly twice the monthly app users as my niche left-wing intellectual podcast has monthly downloads. The Dig's own healthy but rather modest financial situation suggests to me that this company is not worth nearly $6 billion."

From Paul Krugman: "So, did the ACA bend the cost curve? Call it coincidence, but excess cost growth -- health spending growing faster than GDP -- basically ended when it passed." See chart:

I'm reminded that Switzerland long had the world's second most expensive health care system, with costs increasing in tandem with US costs, until they adopted a universal non-profit insurance scheme. While this was still much more expensive than systems in UK, Germany, and France, it halted the increase, while US costs continue to rise. ACA hasn't worked as well as Switzerland's system -- by design, it isn't universal, and still allows (and sometimes encourages) profit-seeking -- but it was a step in the right direction.

Top story threads:

Israel:

• Mondoweiss:

  • [03-18] Day 164: Israeli army storms al-Shifa again, aid reaches Jabalia for first time in months: "Over a million people in Gaza face 'imminent' famine as UNRWA aid trucks arrive in northern Gaza for the first time in months. Meanwhile, the Israeli army's Chief of Staff says 'a long way to go' until Israel's military objectives are achieved."

  • [03-19] Day 165: Israeli attacks escalate on Rafah, al-Shifa Hospital invasion enters second day: "After a night of heavy bombardment the PA warns Israel's Rafah offensive has begun. Meanwhile, the invasion of al-Shifa hospital continues; all communication with medical staff trapped inside the hospital has been silent since Monday evening."

  • [03-20] Day 166: Israel kills Gaza officials handling food delivery to the north; Canada votes to halt arms sales to Israel: "Hamas slams Israel for 'spreading chaos' after an Israeli airstrike killed two local police officers in charge of securing and delivering food to north Gaza. In the West Bank, Israeli forces and settlers kill two Palestinians."

  • [03-21] Day 167: Israel has killed over 100 aid workers in Gaza in the last week: "Israel has killed over 100 aid workers in Gaza over the past week as its military siege of al-Shifa Hospital continues. Meanwhile, the Netanyahu government continues planning for an invasion of Rafah."

  • [03-22] Day 168: US advances UN Security Counsil ceasefire resolution as al-Shifa Hospital siege enters fifth day: "The siege of al-Shifa Hospital enters its fifth day as the Israeli army threatens to blow up the hospital, while the U.S.'s proposed UNSC resolution uses nebulous language that does not call for an "immediate" ceasefire.

  • [03-23] Day 169: Israel kills 7 aid-seekers in northern Gaza, 4 children in Rafah as siege of al-Shifa Hospital enters sixth day: "Israel continued its airstrikes on Rafah, killing four children, while in northern Gaza Israel turned back food aid for the second time in a week and killed at least 7 Palestinian aid-seekers near the Kuwaiti roundabout."

  • [03-24] Day 170: Israel assaults al-Shifa, Nasser, and al-Amal hospitals in one day: "Israeli forces ordered Palestinians inside al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis to leave 'naked,' while survivors of the al-Shifa Hospital raid witnessed numerous atrocities committed by the Israeli army. In Jerusalem, Israeli settlers stormed al-Aqsa."

• Sabreen Akhter: [03-21] When children are present in a genocide.

• Faress Arafat: [03-23] Gaza's children are enduring overwhelming trauma: "A Palestinian nurse from the al-Shifa Hospital recalls his experience tending to the children wounded and killed in the war."

• Mohamad Bazzi: [03-21] The Gaza famine is human-made. And the US is complicit in this catastrophe.

• Cate Brown: [03-22] Israel announces largest West Bank land seizure since 1993 during Blinken visit.

• Eliza Griswold: [03-21] The children who lost limbs in Gaza: "More than a thousand children who were injured in the war are now amputees. What do their futures hold?"

• Isaac Chotiner: [03-21] The brutal conditions facing Palestinian prisoners: "Since the attacks of October 7th, Israel has held thousands of people from Gaza and the West Bank in detention camps and prisons." Interview with Tal Steiner, whose Public Committee Against Torture in Israel tries to monitor such things.

• Stephanie Guilloud: [03-20] There is nothing we can do about Israel other than everything: "The war on Gaza is being used to advance fascism and white supremacy in the U.S. It is also opening people's eyes to global systems that require genocide to continue. To stand with Palestine is to transform those systems and build a different world."

• Middle East Monitor: [03-13] Satellite images show 35% of Gaza's buildings destroyed.

• Mondoweiss: [03-18] The real reason Israel stormed al-Shifa Hospital yet again: "Israel's latest attack on al-Shifa Hospital and the successful delivery of food aid to northern Gaza are connected. Here's how."

• Yumna Patel: [03-22] Israel's plans to replace its Palestinian labor force could spell disaster for the Palestinian economy.

• Meron Rapoport: [03-20] The Israeli public is dispirited. So why is the right euphoric?

• Jeremy Scahill: "Man-made hell on Earth": A Canadian doctor on his medical mission to Gaza: "Palestinian doctors 'are working on a daily basis on the most horrific, explosive trauma that you've ever seen. They're doing sometimes 14, 15 amputations, mostly on children, per day, and they've been doing it for six months now."

• Amna Shabana: [03-20] 'All of them are gone except me': "My friend Reem Hamadaqa barely survived an attack on her home in Khan Younis that killed her parents and most of her family. What do you tell a friend who has lost nearly everything?"

• Richard Silverstein: [03-23] Amalek directive approves murders of Hamas leaders' families: "Israel targeting Hamas leadership for elimination along with all family members." The "Amalek directive" refers back to an earlier [2023-10-25] post: Israeli security cabinet orders murders of senior Hamas leaders and families: "Ministers tasked IDF and Shin Bet with mass assassinations, invoking a Biblical verse commanding extermination of Amalek."

• Maureen Tkacik: [03-20] What really happened on October 7? "And why, wonders a new Al Jazeera documentary, did the media go to such lengths to concoct gruesome X-rated versions of an attack that was harrowing enough to begin with?" Pull quote: "Hamas had some rockets, but did it really have the weaponry capable of mounting this level of destruction? Western journalists have reported that Hamas was fully responsible." Who did? Well:

  By November, the IDF conceded that it had, actually, deployed Apache helicopters and tanks to the Nova music festival that "may" have killed "some" of the Nova festival concertgoers, in accordance with something called the Hannibal Directive, a doctrine named for a Carthaginian general who poisoned himself rather than be questioned by his Roman captors, whereby the Israeli army is ordered to fire upon its own troops to prevent the enemy from taking those troops hostage. Around noon on October 7, according to Israeli newspapers cited in the documentary, the IDF may have invoked a version of the Hannibal directive, expanded to include Israeli civilians, and in accordance began blindly opening fire with rockets and helicopter gunships on any person or vehicle seen moving across the border with Gaza. In particular, the documentary visits Kibbutz Be'eri, which looks a bit like present-day Gaza in parts, with a munitions expert who demonstrates strong evidence that some of the houses had been hit with IDF tank fire. It was Israeli troops, not Hamas "murderers," according to one resident, who killed 12 longtime residents there.

  Also on the Al Jazeera documentary:

  • Peter Oborne: [03-22] Al Jazeera tells the 7 October story that British media will not.

• Alex de Waal: [03-21] We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since the second world war: "Even when the numbers of people needlessly dying dwindle, the scars of famine will endure."

• Vivian Yee/Iyad Abuheweila/Abu Bakr Bashir/Ameera Harouda: [03-23] Gaza's shadow death toll: Bodies buried beneath the rubble.

Israel vs. world opinion:

• Michael Arria:

  • [03-20] Canadian foreign minister says country will stop arms sales to Israel.

  • [03-21] The Shift: Schumer's speech.

  • [03-22] Ceasefire resolutions are building organizing power throughout the US: "More than 100 ceasefire resolutions have passed throughout the United States. They might seem merely symbolic, but activists say they will have a lasting impact." I can add that according to friends who have been working on this, the effort in Wichita, KS, is just one vote short of passing.

  • [03-23] US cuts UNRWA funding as famine looms for Gaza: This was included in the bill to avoid shutting down the government.

• Ramzy Baroud: [03-22] Cognitive dissonance: Perplexed US foreign policy is prolonging Gaza genocide: "Perplexed" works on two levels here: they can't figure out how to do things, because they're stuck in a lot of dysfunctional ideas (like deterrence, sanctions, their great "indispensable nation" conceit); but they also can't figure out what they want to do, partly because Israel doesn't allow them any sensible options.

• Daniel Boguslaw: Biden decries civilian deaths in Gaza as Pentagon fails with its own safeguards.

• Peter Beinart: [03-22] The great rupture in American Jewish life.

• Jonathan Chait: [03-21] Schumer is a better friend to Israel than Netanyahu's allies: "Israelis have a right to know the dangers of Netanyahu's one-statism."

• Stan and Priti Gulati Cox: [03-19] Blocking the aid trucks, letting the tanks roll.

• Thomas L Friedman: [03-19] What Schumer and Biden got right about Netanyahu: Like them, Friedman's been so securely on the party bus for so long that he feels entitled to weigh on on Israeli politics, if only to pretend that something can be redeemed out of their descent into genocide. Mostly, that means another attempt to rescue the "two-state" mirage.

  As I've noted elsewhere, "two-state" is a card that Israel shows on occasion when it seems convenient, but always withdraws, because they're unwilling to allow anything like an independent state of Palestinians. Or maybe they've just found it unnecessary, as long as no one seriously twists their arms -- Americans have nominally supported "two-state" since 1967, but never required more than a bit of lip-service. They have at various points suggested they'd agree to "two-state": they supported the 1937 and 1947 partition plans, they agreed to UN resolutions in 1967 and 1973 which they never followed up on, they agreed with Egypt in 1979 to "autonomy" (a vague term with no timetable), they agreed to Oslo (with various delays for "confidence building" that never happened, at least to their satisfaction); all the while building more settlements designed to establish "facts on the ground" making it impossible to return land to any Palestinian state.

  Friedman's six points here just show how maleable his mind is to Israeli thinking. For instance, "Hamas's attack was designed to halt Israel from becoming more embedded than ever in the Arab world thanks to the Abraham Accords and the budding normalization process with Saudi Arabia." So, the real reason a thousand Hamas fighters undertook a suicide mission was to spoil Jared Kushner's kickback scam? Gaza had been blockaded and was being choked to near-death, especially since 2005, but Israelis can only imagine their own existence at stake.

  Mention "one-state," with its obvious implication of everyone under that state enjoying equal rights, and Israelis will reject the very idea as a "non-starter" -- as an idea they're unwilling to even entertain, even though every real democracy takes pains to protect minority individual rights from majoritarian abuse.

• Liz Goodwin/Abigail Hauslohner/Yasmeen Abutaleb/Leigh Ann Caldwell: [03-20] Republicans hug Netanyahu tighter as Democratic tensions with Israel war strategy boil: "The Israeli PM criticized Schumer's comments calling for a new election as 'outrageous' in GOP-only meeting." The meeting itself says volumes about those present: how arrogant and careless Netanyahu is about entering into American party politics, and how arrogant and careless Republicans are in usurping Biden's foreign policy prerogatives. But my first reaction was simply, "birds of a feather flock together" -- be they fascists, or merely criminal-minded.

• Michael Hirsh: [03-22] From 'I love you' to 'asshole': How Joe gave up on Bibi.

• Elie Quinlan Houghtaling: In harrowing speech, AOC warns the US is aiding "genocide" in Gaza.

• Gabriela Kaplan: [03-24] 'Not in my name': How a new generation is divesting from Israeli apartheid.

• Fred Kaplan: [03-18] What Trump really means when he says he would end the war in Gaza "quickly". Why write the article when you know the answer is "nothing"? Trump spent his first term in thrall to his advisers and donors/investors, and got nothing to show for it (aside from his son-in-law pocketing $2B for his Abraham Accords scam). Ok, one stroke of genius was scheduling the Afghanistan withdrawal to occur on Biden's watch, as that was the exact point his approval rates sunk under 50%. But that suggests Trump was smart enough to lose 2020 on purpose, so Biden would get blamed for all of the messes Trump left -- Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Gaza are the loudest ones to date, but many more are still simmering -- so he could rise again and claim a second term on his own far more extremist terms. The main foreign policy change to expect from Trump 2.0 is that he will provide a much more credible test of Nixon's "madman theory."

• Tariq Kenney-Shawa: [03-22] Don't be fooled by Antony Blinken's crocodile tears: "The secretary of state is very good at projecting empathy about the horror in Gaza. But his actions speak much louder than his words."

• Amed Khan: Organizing aid to Gaza led me to a harsh truth: Biden is on board for ethnic cleansing: "I helped with airlifts in Afghanistan, aid to the Ukrainian front, and building roads in Rwanda. None of it prepared me for the challenges of Gaza.

• David Klion: Hit dogs holler: What the backlash against Jonathan Glazer says about Israel's defenders.

• Mary Lawlor: [03-21] There is no moral argument that justifies the sale of weapons to Israel: "Israel has shown it will use these arms indiscriminately against Palestinians."

• Branko Marcetic: [03-23] Israel's meddling in US politics is aggressive and unceasing.

• Joseph Massad: [03-20] In the West, Israel never reinitiates violence, it only 'retaliates': Or so says Western media, especially the New York Times.

• Jeff Melnick: [02-27] A 'Black-Jewish alliance' in the US? Israel-Gaza war shows it's more myth than special relationship.

• James North: [03-23] Mainstream media finally reports on Gaza famine but won't admit Israel is deliberately responsible.

• Trita Parsi: [03-22] Why US ceasefire proposal failed at UNSC: "Russia and China vetoed language which did represent a shift for Biden -- but the devil is in the details."

• Mitchell Plitnick: [03-23] Chuck Schumer's speech widens rifts over Israel in Congress: "Democrats are fracturing over support for Israel, because their constituents don't support it. The long-term result might be the end of the bipartisan consensus on Israel."

• Ted Rall: [03-20] Israel: Hermit kingdom: "Why is Israel rapidly sliding into pariah status now?"

• Michael Sappir: The spiraling absurdity of Germany's pro-Israel fanaticism.

• Karim Sariahmed: [03-19] Doctors justify genocide in a prestigious journal: "The Journal of the American Medical Association published four letters rife with racist anti-Palestinian tropes. The prestigious platform created the appearance of intellectualism and expertise, but it's all just racism with a ribbon on it."

• Norman Solomon: [03-24] How Israel hides its atrocities in Gaza: "Apologists for Israel's mass murder in Gaza fall back on 'antisemitism' claims."

• Prem Thakker: US doubles down on defunding UNRWA -- despite flimsy allegations.

• Philip Weiss: [03-24] Weekly Briefing: Zionism will never be viewed the same after the Gaza genocide: "Jeffrey Goldberg used to brag of his Israeli military service but this week was forced to withdraw from a speaking event after students asked how a former IDF prison guard could speak on democracy. Zionism has lost its hallowed perch in U.S. society."

America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:

• Sam Biddle: Tech official pushing TikTok ban could reap windfall from US-China cold war.

• Connor Echols: [03-21] 'Not defendable': Top enlisted brass blast conditions for soldiers: "The 'quality of life' for military and their families has become a persistent problem, and its feeding into the recruitment crisis."

• Jonathan Freedland: [03-22] In defying Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu is exposing the limits of US power.

• Daniel Larison: [03-22] Hawks pushing for 'axis of evil' reunion tour: "Lumping US adversaries into a single-headed monster is a paranoid delusion used as to fuel militarism."

• Alfred McCoy: [03-12] The American Empire in (ultimate? crisis: "The decline and fall of it all?" Sections, predictably, include: "Creeping disaster in Ukraine"; "Crisis in Gaza"; and "Trouble in the Taiwan Straits."

• Andrew O'Hehir: [03-04] America in 2024: Blind, blundering Colossus on a downward slide: "If the Biden-Trump rerun wasn't embarrassing enough, US support for Israel has alienated the entire world."

• Ishaan Tharoor: Washington Post's "Worldview" columnist. These pieces could be scattered about, but fit together:

  • [03-19] Israel's war on Hamas brings famine to Gaza: "What makes this calamity all the more stunning is that it's entirely the product of human decisions." Catherine Russell says, "we haven't seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world." He also notes that "Israeli officials, chiefly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appear unmoved by the state of affairs." Like it's exactly what they wanted.

  • [03-20] How the war in Ukraine has split the Czechs and Slovaks.

  • [03-22] Mexico rejects Texas's 'draconian' migrant law.

  • [03-25] The US and Israel have a 'major credibility problem': Let's quote some of this, about US Assistant Secretary of State Bill Russo:

    According to NPR, Russo said in his March 13 call that Israel -- and the United States, as Israel's security guarantor and close ally -- face a "major credibility problem" because of the war, the astonishing Palestinian death toll (now more than 32,000 people), the man-made famine gripping ravaged areas of the Gaza Strip, and growing global frustration with Israel's insistence on prolonging the war to fully eradicate militant group Hamas.

    "The Israelis seemed oblivious to the fact that they are facing major, possibly generational damage to their reputation not just in the region but elsewhere in the world," the memo saida. "We are concerned that the Israelis are missing the forest for the trees and are making a major strategic error in writing off their reputation damage."

• Alex Thurston: [03-21] Why the Nigerien junta wants to kick US troops out: "While Washington's policy has been rudderless since last year's coup, an American exit might not be a bad thing." Also:

• Nick Turse: US-trained Niger junta kicks out US troops, drone base.

Election notes: After Super Tuesday, this is turning into a category with not much happening, or at least not much people are bothering to write against. March 19 saw presidential primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio. Biden's been winning the Democratic side by a bit over 80%, which isn't great for an incumbent, but also isn't disastrous. Trump wins as easily, but rarely hits 80% -- also not great considering no one is actively running against him. (In Arizona, the figures were 89.3% Biden, 78.8% Trump; in Florida, 81.2% Trump; in Illinois, 91.5% Biden, 80.6% Trump; in Kansas 83.8% Biden, 75.5% Trump; in Ohio, 87.1% Biden, 79.2% Trump; in Louisiana, 86.1% Biden, 89.8% Trump. Missouri had a caucus, where Trump got 100% of 924 votes.

• Paul Krugman: [03-21] What's the matter with Ohio?

• Nia Prater: [03-22] The Republican Party is too embarrassing for George Santos: So he's going to run as an independent in Nick LaLota's (R-NY) House district. Most people run as independents because they think they are, but the big advantage for Santos is that he can keep his campaign finance scam going all the way to November, instead of getting wiped out in the primary. So pretty much the same reason Bob Menendez is running as an independent to keep his Senate seat in New Jersey.

Trump, and other Republicans: Salon picks up some substantial pieces, but they also do a lot of stuff that basically amounts to Trump trolling. I usually skip past them, but this week they especially spoke to me, so quite a few got crammed in here this week. I can also give you some author indexes, in case you want to dig deeper (just scanning the titles is often a hoot):

• Igor Derysh: managing editor
• Chauncey DeVega: senior politics writer
• Brian Karem
• Amanda Marcotte: senior politics writer, author of Troll Nation: How the Right Became Trump-Worshipping Mosters Set on Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself.
• Kelly McClure: nights & weekends editor
• Dean Obeidallah: broadcaster, mostly interviews
• Heather Digby Parton: columnist
• Norman Solomon: author of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine
• Kirk Swearingen
• Tatyana Tandanpolie: Trump crime beat reporter
• Lucian K Truscott IV

This week's links on all things Republican (the Trumpier the better, but the real evil lies in the billionaire-funded think tanks):

• Avram Anderson/Shealeigh Voitl: [03-22] Heritage Foundation's blueprint for regression: "Project 2025 targets vulnerable communities, politicizes independent institutions, and quashes dissent."

• Gregg Barak: [03-23] It's time to ignore Trump's trials: Criminal accountability is now a distraction: "Please wake up sleeping America." It's a rather messy argument, but until judgment came, the civil trials seemed like a circus sideshow, but now he's scrambling for money. Barak himself has a book coming out soon, which news will quickly render obsolete: Indicting the 45th President: Boss Trump, the GOP, and What We Can Do About the Threat to American Democracy.

• Jonathan Chait: [03-23] The paramilitary candidate: "Trump has made justice for insurrectionists the center of his campaign."

• Jeremy Childs: [03-24] Eric Trump says lenders he hit for half-billion dollars in father's bond scramble 'were laughing'.

• Nick Corasaniti/Maya King/Alexandra Berzon: [03-18] The GOP flamethrower with a right-wing vision for North Carolina: "Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, has a long history of inflammatory statements. He has also called for weaving conservative religious beliefs into the fabric of government."

• Oliver Darcy: [03-22] NBC hires former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who has demonized the press and refused to acknowledge Biden was fairly elected. As Norman Ornstein tweeted: "At $300,000. Far more than experts, and honest analysts. What an utter disgrace." Not the only blowback:

  • Drew Harwell: [03-24] Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel faces sharp criticism after NBC hiring.

  • Jack McCordick: [03-24] Ronna McDaniel won't be appearing on MSNBC: "Intense internal backlash has followed NBC News' hiring of the former RNC chair as political analyst." So "cancel culture" got her? I could see that she might be worth it if she totally turned on Trump, and offered the sort of insider dish that proved it. But she isn't credible until she turns, nor is doing so for big bucks helping much. And if she doesn't turn, NBC is just offering her a golden parachute to continue her work as a Republican propagandist.

  • Philip Bump: [03-25] Ronna McDaniel quickly demonstrates that her view isn't worth the cost.

• Igor Derysh:

  • [03-13] "Make the RNC white again": Minority outreach cut, Trump election lawyer installed in MAGA takeover.

  • [03-19] Trump melts down on Truth Social as lawyers admit he can't get bond.

  • [03-21] Legal analyst flags massive Trump Tower debt as AG Letitia James threatens to seize his properties.

  • [03-22] Cash-strapped Trump diverts donations from RNC to pay mounting legal bills after angry denials.

  • [03-22] Trump cashes in on Truth Social "meme stock" -- but can't use the money to pay $454 million penalty.

• Chauncey DeVega:

  • [03-21] Lost in the malignant normality of the Trumpocene: "Normalizing MAGA abuse only further entraps us."

  • [03-22] Trump's love letters to MAGA: Campaign emails forge a cult bond: "Trump campaign emails have become quite phallic and psychosexual."

• Kevin T Dugan: [03-21] How screwed is Trump? "Unless he can find a way out of paying Tish James, he will go bust on Monday."

• Abdallah Fayyad: [03-19] Trump is suddenly in need of a lot of cash. That's everyone's problem. Why on earth is that? The US judicial system isn't famed for treating convicts with the sort of kid gloves Trump feels he's entitled to. Is this supposed to be some variation on the joke: "if you owe thousands, that's your problem; if you owe millions, that's the bank's problem"? Whatever happened to "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime"? I might grant that the system, in general, is biased against defendants, and tends toward overly harsh judgments. But why should Trump, a guy who seems incapable of remorse, and who has never shown any sympathy for anyone else, be the exception? If anything, he's a flagrant example of what the justice system is designed to protect us against.

• Henry A Giroux: [03-17] Brecht's warning about the serpent's egg: Everyday Fascism: "In a world shaped increasingly by emerging authoritarianism, it has become increasingly difficult to remember what a purposeful and substantive democracy looks like."

• Rae Hodge: [01-29] The Trump White House was hopped up on Air Force "go pills" because of course it was.

• Elie Honig: [03-22] What are the odds Trump goes on trial before the election?

• Brian Karem: [03-21] We have met the enemy and he is us: "Trump is just a symptom. The absurdity is everywhere." Links to:

  • Howie Klein: [03-15] The press is pathologizing the normal in the case of Biden . . . and normalizing the pathological in the case of Trump.

  • Jonathan V Last: [03-15] What if Americans *can't* understand the Trump crazy? "Our brains are hardwired to normalize extraordinary inputs when they become ordinary." [stopped by paywall, but he's also quoted by Klein]

• Ed Kilgore:

  • [03-21] Why would Trump back a 15-week national abortion ban now?

  • [03-21] Republicans abandon their strategic silence on the Israel-Hamas war: "It's pretty clear Republicans and their beloved Bibi are now engaged in a mutual escalation of partisan rhetoric."

  • [03-21] Trump defenders dismiss all his legal problems as 'lawfare'.

  • [03-22] Under threat from Marjorie Taylor Greene, GOP speaker faces fateful choice: She's upset that Mike Johnson allowed the House to pass a bipartisan appropriations bill instead of shutting down the government, and worried that Johnson may let Ukraine aid come up for a vote. On the other hand, Democrats may want the Ukraine bill enough to save Johnson's speakership (which they didn't do for Kevin McCarthy). PS:

    • Igor Derysh: Gaetz opposes MTG motion to oust speaker.

    • Chris Lehman: [03-22] Marjorie Taylor Greene's vacant motion.

    • Jim Newell: Congrats to Marjorie Taylor Greene on a perfectly executed stunt.

• Clare Malone: [03-25] The face of Donald Trump's deceptively savvy media strategy: "The former President and his spokesman, Steven Cheung, like to hurl insults at their political rivals, but behind the scenes the campaign has maintained a cozy relationship with much of the mainstream press." Evidently, he's the one responsible for lines like "[DeSantis] shuffled his feet and gingerly walked across the debate set like a 10 year old girl who had just raided her mom's closet and discovered heels for the first time" and "it's clear to see that Haley's campaign is just one giant grift to either build her name ID for life after politics or to audition for a cable news contributor contract."

• Amanda Marcotte:

  • [03-19] Trump's call for a "bloodbath" was literal -- let's not waste time pretending it was ambiguous.

  • [03-20] White evangelicals embrace raunchy photos -- yet they hate sex as much as ever.

  • [03-22] Trump's criminal cases are his campaign.

• Lisa Mascaro/Mary Clare Jalonick/Jill Colvin: [03-19] Trump is making the Jan. 6 attack a cornerstone of his bid for the White House.

• David Masciotra: [03-16] Ignorance and democracy: Capitalism's long war against higher education: "My alma mater, and dozens of other colleges, are ditching the liberal arts. That's a good way to kill off democracy." Sounds like a pretty broad indictment, but first two words in article are "Donald Trump," and a pull quote cites advanced degree holders Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz. When I see names of some Harvard grads -- KS Attorney General Kris Kobach is one, and as far as I can tell he's never written a law that's been upheld as constitutional -- I'm reminded of the Randy Newman lyric: "Good old boys from LSU, went in dumb, came out dumb too."

  This led me to a couple older articles:

  • [02-03] Remember the rules, liberals: Only the right gets to mock America: "Chase CEO Jamie Dimon offers words of wisdom from Davis: Be nicer to MAGA 'deplorables,' bow down before Trump."

  • [2021-07-11] Could genocide really happen here? Leading scholar says America is on "high alert": Interview with Alexander Laban Hinton, who wrote It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US.

  • [2021-05-09] Now we're supposed to think Reagan, Bush and the Cheneys are cool? They got us here.

• Andrea Mazzarino: [03-21] A dictatorship on day one? If America were a Trumpian autocracy.

• Kelly McClure: [03-22] Trump refers to AG Letitia James as having an "ugly mouth" and "low IQ" in Truth Social rant.

• Harold Meyerson: [03-21] Republicans say it aloud: They want to raise the retirement age: "The vast majority of House GOPniks tell Americans that if they want Social Security, they need top work longer."

• Stephanie Mencimer: [03-25] From laddie mag model to RNC co-chair: Lara Trump, nepo-spouse.

• Dean Obeidallah: [03-22] "He'll never leave": Why Trump's dynasty, built on corruption and violence, won't end with him: Interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.

• Heather Digby Parton:

  • [03-13] Trump's new "Honest Don" nickname can't distract from his obvious decline. Is anyone else calling him that? Has anyone ever heard it and not laughed?

  • [03-16] Follow the money, and you'll find Donald Trump in deep trouble.

  • [03-20] Trump is dangerously desperate for a bailout: "The return of Paul Manafort shows that the Trump campaign is willing to trade security for some funds."

  • [03-22] Martyrs to the MAGA cause: Trump follows Hitler's steps with glorification of Jan. 6: "He may not have actually read that book of Hitler speeches but he didn't need to. Trump's a natural."

• Christian Paz: [03-21] 3 theories for why Donald Trump's popularity is rising: None are very convincing:

  1. Trump is benefiting from economic nostalgia
  2. Trump is recovering from a remarkably low moment
  3. Trump is benefiting from a quieter campaign, muted coverage, and a tuned-out public

  You might as well say it's because many people are forgetful, gullible, ill-tempered and flat-out stupid, because that's what Trump's campaign -- which, by the way, has not been very quiet or muted, no matter how many have tried to tune it out -- caters to. I think this also reflects two problems that Biden has: he represents the status quo, which in the end will probably save him, but for now it's mostly marked by increasing inequality and precarity, even through relatively decent economic stats; also, Biden's still in the phase where he's mostly campaigning for the donors -- and he's raising more money, even before you deduct the fines and legal costs Trump is racking up. That focus will shift with the DNC in August, when they start spending their war chest on actually wooing voters they've thus far taken for granted.

• Sam Russek: The mattress tycoon funding the far right in Texas: Jim McIngvale.

• Greg Sargent: Trump's latest rage-rant reveals a major political weakness.

• Deirdre Shesgreen: [03-18] 'Gross misjudgment': Experts say Trump's decision to disband pandemic team hindered coronavirus response.

• Matt Stieb:

  • [03-22] Trump is about to get $3 billion richer thanks to Truth Social. Or maybe not, given that nobody thinks the company is actually worth anything like its valuation.

  • [03-22] The Republican House majority will soon be down to just one seat. Mike Gallagher (R-WS) has resigned. Like the recently resigned Ken Buck (R-CO), Gallagher broke ranks and voted against impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas.

• Kirk Swearingen: [03-24] Who brought the crime, the drugs and the rape? It was him: "Trump's infamous 2015 speech claimed immigrants were 'bringing crime' and were 'rapists.' Talk about projection."

• Prem Thakker: House Republicans want to ban universal free school lunches.

• Lucian K Truscott IV: [03-19] Trump blows the MAGA whistle -- and his signal is heard loud and clear.

• Andra Watkins:

  [03-19] Decoding Project 2025's Christian nationalist language: "Evangelicalese allows Trump's MAGA supporters to hide their extreme positions in plain sight." Note: She also has a Substack called How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life. Previously wrote:

  • [03-01] Project 2025 is more than a playbook for Trumpism, it's the Christian Nationalist manifesto: "The right intends to force every American to live their definition of a good life through government edict."

• Li Zhou: [03-20] How the threat of a government shutdown became normalized.

Biden and/or the Democrats:

• Perry Bacon Jr: [03-19] Voters of color are shifting right. Are Democrats doomed?

• Hannah Story Brown: [03-25] Tim Ryan's natural gas advocacy makes a mockery of public service: Ex-Representative (D-OH), ran for Senate and lost, now "leveraging his prior career for a group backed by fossil fuel and petrochemical players." Why do you suppose he couldn't convince voters he'd serve them better than a Republican?

• Gail C Christopher: [03-22] Stop ageism: A call for action: "It's one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice, and it needs to come to an end in society and this presidential campaign." Really, you think this is going to work? Or even help? Believe me, I know it happens, often in cases where it is inappropriate, but unlike many prejudices, there is also something substantive at root here, and finding the right combination of respect and care and understanding in each distinct case is going to take some work, and not just a bumper sticker slogan.

• Ryan Cooper: [03-11] Democrats need a party publication: "The New York Times is not going to get Biden's campaign message before voters." Pull quote: "There is a giant right-wing propaganda apparatus blasting Republican messaging into tens of millions of homes every day, which Democrats do not have." Also: "You could do quite a lot of journalism for a tiny, tiny fraction of what the Democrats are going to spend on the 2024 campaign." I figured the line about the New York Times was some kind of joke, but here's the unfunny part:

  A recent speech from New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger makes clear that he -- perhaps unsurprisingly for a scion of multigenerational inherited wealth -- is proud of his paper's ludicrously anti-Biden slant and virulent transphobia, and will keep doing it. If it's up to him, this campaign will center around Biden's age, while Trump's numerous extreme scandals and outright criminality -- as well as his own advanced age and dissolving brain -- will be carefully downplayed. If I were Biden and the Democrats, who implicitly elevate the Times as their counterpoint to Fox, I'd be looking to change that, and quick.

• James Downie: [03-23] House Republicans just gave Biden the biggest possible gift: "When it comes to Social Security and Medicare, Republicans just can't help themselves." I could have filed this under Republicans, but didn't want this piece to get lost among this week's Trump scuzziness. Trump is a problem, but he's merely cosmetic compared to the deep Republican mindset, which remains set on destroying the institutions that at least minimally protect us from the most predatory practices of capitalism, supposedly in favor of an entrepreneurial utopia. I was pointed to this piece by an Astra Taylor tweet (link just vanished), possibly because the piece itself cites her The Age of Insecurity.

• Robert Kuttner:

  • [03-18] Man of steel: "President Biden's blockage of the proposed purchase of US Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel is unprecedented and magnificently pro-union."

  • [03-22] The promise of Biden's second term: "And the exemplary effects of his green jobs creation programs in his first term."

Legal matters and other crimes:

• Jamelle Bouie: [03-22] The Supreme Court is playing a dangerous game: "The Supreme Court is making a bet, in other words, that it is truly unaccountable." Also, note: "There is no way to look past the fact that five of the six members of the conservative majority on the Roberts court were nominated by presidents who entered office without the winds of a popular majority." The sixth was nominated by a president who lost next time (as did Trump).

• Akela Lacy:

  • Prosecute a cop? You'll face removal from office: "Reform-minded district attorneys like Minnesota's Mary Moriatry are facing backlash for prosecuting police shootings and misconduct."

  • GOP megadonor's PAC fires off first ads in Summer Lee's Democratic primary: This is more about Israel, but it's yet another example of how rich right-wingers use their money to make the world a more miserable place. Who? Well, Jeff Yass, already mentioned elsewhere.

• Dahlia Lithwick/Mark Joseph Stern: The Supreme Court just gave Texas a green light to harass every Latino person in the state.

• Harry Litman: [03-20] Aileen Cannon's handling of Trump's classified records case just went from bad to horrible.

  • Here's why Judge Aileen Cannon's law clerks seem to have suddenly quit.

• Ian Millhiser:

  • [03-18] Bret Kavanaugh rides to the Biden administration's defense in a big First Amendment case: "The Supreme Court's center right appears increasingly frustrated with the judiciary's far right."

  • [03-20] The Supreme Court's confusing new border decision, explained: "It is hard to believe that Justice Amy Coney Barrett actually agrees with her own opinion."

  • [03-21] The Supreme Court's abortion pills case, explained: "The stakes in the Supreme Court's mifepristone case go way beyond abortion."

• Nicole Narea: [03-21] Apple is facing a new antitrust lawsuit that could dethrone the iPhone: Last Apple product I owned was the Apple II. I soon soured not on the product so much as the company's profit-raking business strategy, something they've only honed further during the intervening forty-some years. Sure, that's exactly what big companies do, but only to the extent we let them get away with it. More:

  • John Herrman: [03-22] The government finally comes for Apple.

• Li Zhou: [03-20] How a Mississippi case of police brutality emphasizes the need for more accountability: "Six former police officers tortured two Black men. They're getting sentenced this week." As the article notes, "police misconduct is a systemic problem -- and there needs to be much more accountability." This was an especially egregious case.

Climate and environment:

• Stephen Lezak: [03-22] Scientists just gave humanity an overdue reality check. The world will be better for it. This follows on [03-20] Geologists make it official: we're not in an 'anthropocene' epoch. For geologists, it's a fairly technical question, and given the ways geologists think about time, I'm not surprised that they don't see need for another division. The Holocene only starts with the retreat of the Wisconsin Ice Age -- the fifth major glacial advance of the Pleistocene, itself an arguably premature designation. (The factors that drove ice ages during the period have are presumably still in place -- certainly the continents haven't moved much, nor has the earth orbit changed, or solar output -- but the atmosphere has been altered enough to make renascent glaciation very unlikely.) Humans started leaving their mark on the Earth's surface as the Holocene started some 11,700 years ago, so the whole epoch could have been named the Anthropocene. Perhaps that seemed presumptuous when first named, and maybe even now, but using 1952 as an convenient dividing line is simply arbitrary.

  • Dominique Browning: [03-23] Let's call our present moment on Earth what it is: Obscene.

• Delaney Nolan: The EPA is backing down from environmental justice cases nationwide.

• Cassady Rosenblum: [03-23] Blocking Burning Man and vandalizing Van Gogh: Climate activists are done playing nice: This is indicative of what happens with those in power deny, dissemble, and ultimately fail at problems that have become overwhelmingly obvious. Those in power should see protests -- orderly of course, but also disruptive and destructive -- as symptoms of underlying issues that require their attention.

  But most often, they think they can get away with suppressing protests, which by aggravating the protesters while ignoring the problems only makes future protests more desperate, and dangerous. As noted here, "something desperate and defiant is stirring in the climate movement." Signs of escalating tactics are as easily measured as the increasing ppm of greenhouse gases. The tipping points of catastrophic inflections are harder to guess, but their odds are approaching inevitable, as we have observed stressed humans do many times before, in many comparable situations.

• David Wallace-Wells: [03-20] When we see the climate more clearly, what will we do? There is not a satellite designed to locate methane leeks.

Business/economic matters:

• Dylan Baddour: [03-19] Gulf Coast petrochemical buildout draws billions in tax breaks for polluters.

• Dean Baker:

  • [03-20] Senators push the Increase Inflation Act (A.K.A. "The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act"): Note that this is the sort of thing that qualifies as "bipartisan legislation."

    This is the sort of nonsense that we can expect to see in large quantities if PERA becomes law. It is 180 degrees at odds from what we should be encouraging businesses to do. We want them to develop better ways to do things and produce better products, not more creative ways to game the patent system. PERA will be a great bonanza for patent lawyers, but really bad news for just about everyone else.

  • [03-23] Ross Douthat rants incoherently on Trump's bloodbath.

  • [03-23] AI, budget deficits, and the aging crisis.

• Matthew Cunningham-Cook: [03-21] The PBM-insurer mafia comes for community pharmacies: "UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna's PBMs are using their market share and pull in Washington to drive one of the key levers to manage health caree costs -- independent pharmacies -- out of business."

• David Dayen:

  • [03-18] Landmark settlement breaks up the real estate cartel: "The collusive arrangement among real estate agents that led to Americans paying extortionate commissions is likely over."

  • [03-19] Google and Apple discuss an exclusive deal -- again: "The two tech giants are talking about licensing Google's AI technology for the iPhone. This is precisely the kind of deal that landed Google in court over its search engine."

• Sarah Jones: [03-21] The hunger strike to end 24-hours shifts.

Ukraine War:

• Blaise Malley: [03-22] Diplomacy Watch: Middle powers offer unique 'congrats' to Putin: "Leaders in Turkey, India, use post-election phone calls to offer support in future negotiations."

• New York Times: [03-23] Death toll rises to 133 in Moscow concert hall attack: US sources were quick to blame this on ISIS, and to deny Ukrainian involvement (although Zelensky couldn't resist a "told you so").

  PS:

  • Joshua Keating: [03-23] The battle for blame over a deadly terror attack in Moscow.

  • Max Boot: [03-23] Putin fixates on imaginary foes while terrorists attack Moscow. As do American pundits, who never miss an opportunity to spin against Putin.

  • Anatol Lieven: [03-25] Moscow attack proves Russia -- and US -- have lost sight of priorities: "We both have the same enemies but spend most of the time ignoring that fact." He thinks he's talking about ISIS-K, which indeed is plausibly opposed to both regimes with their long and cruel "great game" history in Afghanistan, but the real shared enemy is the arrogance that led them to think they could impose their power on foreign lands, and then fought back against every hint of revolt.

  • Serge Schmemann: [03-23] For Putin, even a terrorist attack is a chance to spread misinformation.

  • Washington Post: [03-23] Abolishing liberty did not bring Russian security.

  • Joshua Yaffa: [03-24] How will Putin respond to the terrorist attack in Moscow?

• Simon Jenkins: [03-22] Putin is a dictator and a tyrant, but other forces also sustain him -- and the west needs to understand them: "Kneejerk criticism of regimes in Russia, China or India may make us feel better, but there's no evidence it is making the world a safer place."

• Joshua Keating: [03-22] Why the Pentagon wants to build thousands of easily replaceable, AI-enabled drones: "Ukraine's drone innovations have changed how the US is planning for a war with China."

• Jack Hunter: [03-20] Lindsey Graham wants to force more Ukrainian men into the draft: "The war-hawking senator said 'we need more people in the line.' But 'we' doesn't mean 'he.'"

• Pjotr Sauer: [03-22] Over 1m Ukrainians without power after major Russian assault on energy system: "Kyiv says the country's largest dam and hydroelectric plant were hit as Moscow unleashed 88 missiles and 63 drones." For more, see their Ukraine war briefing, which also reminds us of the peril facing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."

• Ted Snider: [03-20] How many Westerners are fighting in Ukraine? "There may be more foreign boots on the ground -- troops and mercenaries -- than you think."

• Simon Tisdall: [03-16] How will the Ukraine war end? Only when Vladimir Putin is toppled. This extremely stupid piece was written while Russia's election was happening, which we now know gave Putin six more years with 87% of the vote. He raises the usual alarms about "white flags" and "capitulation," castigates Putin as a "messianic mass murderer," and conjures up a new domino theory, assuming that any sign of weakness would only encourage Russia to attack and swallow more territories. Still, there's little reason to believe that Putin could do those things if he wanted to, which is far from certain. The war is stalemated, but neither side can afford to give up, nor is likely to (and clearly, Russia is no more likely to than the US, where Putin's patsy is leading in the polls -- but still 10 months away from becoming president). And despite all his bluster, even Tisdall admits that a "middle way" -- basically a Korea-type ceasefire where "near-term priorities need to shift from attempting to liberate more territory to defending and repairing the more than 80% of the country still under [Ukraine's] control." I'd submit that an even better deal would be possible -- maybe not on territory, but you'd get more security by allowing economic ties to return to normalcy. One should recall that the parts of Ukraine that Russia was able to seize, especially in 2014 but also extras in 2022, were mostly ethnic Russian, and acted as a pro-Russian bloc inside Ukraine. Giving them up makes the rest of Ukraine more pro-western, which is what the US/EU wanted in the first place. I'd call that a win -- and one which Putin wouldn't have to think of as a loss.

• Robert Wright: [03-22] Special cold war freak-out issue: "China and Russia and Cuba -- oh my!" First section is on TikTok, if you're interested, but I want to point you to the second, on how the Wall Street Journal (Yaroslav Trofimov) tries to twist around things that Putin says to suggest negotiating with him is impossible. Further down there's a section on the "Havana Syndrome" freak out, plus his concerns over AI -- which is more the subject of his [03-15] Meta's dangerously carefree AI chief. I'm rather skeptical of his alarm over Open Source in AI -- my position has always been that the real threat is the business model, and Open Source usually tempers that sort of problem (but doesn't preclude it, as Google has amply demonstrated). I'm an admirer but unpaid subscriber, so I haven't listened to his podcasts, but What does Putin want? could be helpful, especially to the aforementioned WSJ reporter.

Around the world:

• Connor Echols: [03-20] US 'prepared to deploy troops to Haiti if necessary. If Biden goes along with this, I dare say it would be political suicide. For Trump, as for most US presidents going back to Thomas Jefferson, Haiti is the quintessential "shithole country." Right-thinking Americans would bristle at the idea of doing anything to help there. Realistic Americans would realize that the US military is not capable of helping, and that its entrance would make matters worse. The left should be pushing back against Biden's warmaking on all fronts. And nobody wants another costly quagmire.

• Sam Knight: [03-25] What have fourteen years of Conservative rule done to Britain? "Living standards have fallen. The country is exhausted by constant drama. But the UK can't move on from the Tories without facing up tot he damage that has occurred."

• Robert Kuttner: [03-13] WTO, RIP: "The annual World Trade Organization meeting came to an ignominious end last week with no 'progress' on major issues. That is a form of progress."

• Emily Tamkin: Slovakia's presidential election is a warning to America: "What to see what the United States would look like under a reelected Trump?"

Other stories:

Laura Bult: [03-21] Why it's so hard for Americans to retire: "There's a reason so many of us don't have enough retirement savings." Video piece, but links to Teresa Ghilarducci's book, Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy. Probably good, but Astra Taylor covers the key point in her The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart.

Stephanie Burt: Lucy Sante and the solitude and solidarity of transitioning: "In her new memoir, I Heard Her Call My Name, Sante dissects her past in order to understand her future."

David Dayen: [01-29] America is not a democracy. Long piece from the print magazine. Seems like I should have noticed it before. Too much to get into just now.

Sarah Jones: The exvangelicals searching for political change. Self-evident neologism is from the book reviewed herein, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church, by Sarah McCammon. Related here:

• Carlene Bauer: [03-12] She trusted God and science. They both failed her. Review of Devout: A Memoir of Doubt, by Anna Gazmarian, "an author who grew up in the evangelical church recounts her struggle to find spiritual and psychological well-being after a mental health challenge."

Rich Juzwiak: [03-12] A biography of a feminist porn pioneer bares all: "In Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution, the historian Jane Kamensky presents a raw personal -- and cultural -- history." Another review:

• Margaret Talbot: [03-16] How Candida Royalle set out to reinvent porn.

Keren Landman: [03-20] Abortion influences everything: "By inhibiting drug development, economic growth, and military recruitment, as well as driving doctors away from the places they're needed most, bans almost certainly harm you -- yes, you."

• Rachel M Cohen: [03-20] Why abortion in the US is on the rise: "There were more abortions in 2023 than in any year since 2011."

• Jodi Enda: The terrifying global reach of the American anti-abortion movement: "Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the United States. They've been busy imposing their will on other countries, too -- with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women."

• Mary Harris: Homicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant people. Abortion bans are making things worse.

• David D Kirkpatrick: [10-02] The next targets for the group that overturned Roe: "Alliance Defending Freedom has won fifteen Supreme Court cases. Now it wants religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws -- and is going after trans rights."

• Ian Ward: [03-25] The group behind Dobbs does not want to talk about what comes next: Interview with Kristen Waggoner of ADF ("Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian legal fund that led the successful legal campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade."

• Mary Ziegler: [03-24] The endgame in the battle over abortion: "The arc of the fetal personhood movement signals where Republicans may be headed."

Katie Moore: [03-17] When Kansas police kill people, the public often can't see bodycam footage. Here's why.

Marcus J Moore: [03-21] The visions of Alice Coltrane: "In the years after her husband John's death, the harpist discovered a sound all her own, a jazz rooted in acts of spirit and will." I'll say something about this in Music Week. Meanwhile:

• Hank Shteamer: [03-23] The Carnegie Hall Concert.

Rick Perlstein: [03-20] 'Stay strapped or get clapped': "How the media misses the story of companies seeking profit by keeping traumatized veterans armed and enraged."

Andrew Prokop: [03-21] The political battle over Laken Riley's murder, explained: Riley was a 22-year-old student in Georgia who was murdered, allegedly by an "illegal immigrant," an event seized upon by right-wing agitators, like the guy who tweeted: "If only people went to the streets to demand change in the name of Laken Riley, like they did for George Floyd." Article provides more details. While the murders as isolated events were equivalent, the policy considerations are very different, starting with responsibility for enabling the killers, and regarding the more general context.

One not even mentioned here is the effect of the sanctions and isolation policy toward Venezuela -- mostly but not exclusively Trump's work -- and how that has driven many, including Riley's alleged killer, to migrate to the US. Prokop: "But reality is also more complicated than Trump's promises that he'll fix everything by getting tougher once he's president."

Brian Resnick: [03-22] The total solar eclipse is returning to the United States -- better than before: "This will be the last total solar eclipse over the contiguous United States for 21 years." I find myself with zero interest in looking up, much less traveling to do so, but family and friends in Arkansas are lobbying for visitors, and I know some people who are going. April 8 is the date.

Dylan Scott: [03-22] Kate Middleton's cancer diagnosis is part of a frightening global trend: "More and more young people are getting cancer." I have zero interest in her, or in any of "those ridiculous people" (John Oliver's apt turn of phrase), and so I've ignored dozens of pieces on them recently, but there's something more going on here. Every category of cancer they used is more common among ages 14-49 than it was in 1990. My wife swears it's environmental, and while I can think of statistical variations, I'm inclined to agree.

Jeffrey St Clair: [03-22] Roaming Charges: L'état sans merci. "Willie Pye is dead and Georgia is back in the execution business." This introduces a long section on what passes for justice in America. Much more, of course. For more on Pye, see:

• Liliana Segura: After four years without an execution, Georgia prepares to kill Willie Pye.

Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins: [03-20] The problematic past, present, and future of inequality studies: Interview with Branko Milanovic, whose lates book is Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War.

Dodai Stewart: [03-16] You're not being gaslit, says a new book. (Or are you?) Review of Kate Abramson: On Gaslighting. Demands precision of a phenomenon that is deliberately imprecise ("all kinds of interactions -- lying, guilt-tripping, manipulation"; "a multi-dimensional horror show"). Cites Harry G Frankfurt's On Bullshit (2005) as a "spiritual forebear."

Astra Taylor/Leah Hunt-Hendrix: [03-21] The one idea that could save American democracy: Tied to the authors' new book, Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Also:

• Amy Fleming: [03-23] 'Organising is the best kind of antidepressant': Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix on solidarity: An interview.

By the way, I just found a link to audio for Astra Taylor: [2023-11-17] The Age of Insecurity: 2023 CBC Massey Lectures, with five hour-long lectures corresponding to the book I just read, and recommend as highly as possible -- I'd go so far as to say that she's the smartest person writing on the left these days. I was pointed to the lectures by a daanis tweet: "I finally listened to @astradisastra Massey Lectures on my way to Boston, just mainlined them one after another straight into my brain, and added her language about precarity and insecurity into my own remarks about surviving together by becoming kin."

Maureen Tkacik: [03-11] 'Return what you stole and be a man with dignity': "Doctors didn't think it was possible to loathe the world's biggest health care profiter any more. Then came the hack that set half their bookkeeping systems on fire." About the ransomware outage at Change Healthcare, which is owned by UnitedHealth ("the nation's fifth-largest company").

Bryan Walsh: [03-22] Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani has been caught up in a gambling controversy. He won't be the last. One of the biggest changes in my lifetime has been the changed attitude toward gambling, which in my mother's day was a degenerative sin indulged by lowlifes, much to the profit of mobsters. Today the mobsters have turned into Republican billionaires -- hard to say whether that's a step up or down ethically -- and their rackets have moved out into the open. For a long time, the shame of the Black Sox kept the lid on sports gambling, but that's been totally blown open in the recent years. I hate it, which doesn't mean I want to try to ban it, but those involved are no better than criminals, and should be reminded of it as often as possible.

• Matt Stieb: [03-21] The Ohtani interpreter gambling scandal is big trouble for MLB.

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